By IANS
Kolkata : Fresh violence in Nandigram area Saturday killed two people and shook West Bengal politically with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee resigning as MP and state minister Kshiti Goswami offering to quit.
As critics blasted the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) of unleashing terrible violence on their opponents in troubled Nandigram, the ruling Left Front got a severe jolt when Goswami of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) publicly came out against the “expedition of killing and plunder”.
And Banerjee turned the heat on the communists by resigning from parliament by faxing her resignation letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
“In protest I hereby tender my resignation from parliament. I will quit politics; I will leave Bengal to protest what is happening. I don’t want this politics of bloodbath,” a shrill Banerjee told a press conference.
Challenging the official claim of two killed and several injured, she alleged that about 200 people had been killed in a violence spree blamed on CPI-M activists determined to cleanse Nandigram of Trinamool-backed activists opposed to takeover of farmland for industry.
“There were about 200 bodies in Nandigram,” Banerjee said. “Small girls and elderly women were raped too. We will try to reach Nandigram again. The last time my convoy was fired at too.”
Banerjee virulently attacked Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya for taking on Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi over his statement criticising the goings on in Nandigram.
“The central government might have political compulsions to take the Left support but not at the cost of women, human lives. No, never!” Banerjee thundered.
In a related development, Goswami told IANS that he wants to resign from the Left Front ministry.
“I don’t know if I would call this genocide. But this is definitely an expedition of killing, plunder and destruction. I don’t know what to say after what happened today. I have expressed my desire to resign and informed my party president about my decision,” Goswami said.
Fresh gun battles erupted in Nandigram area Saturday leaving two people, including a woman, dead and several injured.
The violence began at around noon when CPI-M cadres fired at the Trinamool-backed Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), which opposes land acquisition by the government for industry.
Violence in Nandigram has claimed 34 lives since January, when the region flared up over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ). The state government scrapped the plan later in the face of stiff resistance.
However, a turf battle continues in Nandigram between the CPI-M and the BUPC in the run-up to local body elections in May next year.